[Seattle-editorial] FEATURE PROPOSAL: Unemployment

Sun Jul 6 00:28:44 PDT 2003

The 6/30/03 NY Times Opinion page had an interesting editorial from one of their columnists.  Since you were searching for additional sources, I am enclosing the entire article so that you can choose to quote or link to it.  I am also including the columnists' email address, in case you want to try to solicit an original quote.

-- Laury Kenton

-----------------------------   
Oblivious in D.C.
By BOB HERBERT
E-mail: bobherb at nytimes.com

Of all the challenges we face, none is more troubling than the fact that thousands of Oregonians - many of them children - don't have enough to eat. Oregon has the highest hunger rate in the nation."

- Gov. Ted Kulongoski, in his
State of the State address.

Those who still believe that the policies of the Bush administration will set in motion some kind of renaissance in Iraq should take a look at what's happening to the quality of life for ordinary Americans here at home.

The president, buoyed by the bountiful patronage of the upper classes, seems indifferent to the increasingly harsh struggles of the working classes and the poor.

As Mr. Bush moves from fund-raiser to fund-raiser, building the mother of all campaign stockpiles, states from coast to coast are reaching depths of budget desperation unseen since the Great Depression. The disconnect here is becoming surreal. On Thursday the National Governors Association let it be known that the fiscal crisis that has crippled one state after another is worsening, not getting better.

Taxes have been raised. Services have been cut. And the rainy day funds accumulated in the 1990's have been consumed. If help does not materialize soon - in the form of assistance from the federal government or a sharp turnaround in the economy - some states will fall into a fiscal abyss.

That already seems to be happening in places like California, which has been driven to its knees by a two-year $38.8 billion budget gap, and Oregon, which has seen drastic cuts in public school services and the withholding of potentially life-saving medicine from seriously ill patients.

Most states have been unable to protect even the most fundamental services from damaging budget cuts.

"Few states have succeeded in exempting high-priority programs such as K-12 education, Medicaid, higher education, public safety or aid to cities and towns," according to the compilers of the Fiscal Survey of States, a report produced jointly by the governors' association and the National Association of State Budget Officers.

Scott Pattison, director of the budget officers' group, said, "If economic conditions remain stagnant or worsen, and if budget shortfalls continue next year, the states will have exhausted many of their options for countering a weak economy."

The budget crisis in California, where an unpopular Democratic governor is politically paralyzed and the Republicans in the State Legislature refuse to consider raising taxes, is potentially catastrophic. 

Jack Kyser, a public policy economist in Los Angeles told The Associated Press: "People are nervous. There's a real chance for a meltdown that could have rippling effects throughout the nation. This is something of a different magnitude than we've seen before."

The governors' association called the fiscal survey the most accurate gauge of the health of state budgets. Its discouraging findings were released as the president was preparing a fund-raising swing that added millions more to his campaign stockpile, and as the Internal Revenue Service was reporting that the nation's richest taxpayers were accumulating an even greater share of the nation's wealth.

Some Americans are missing meals and going without their medicine, while others are enjoying a surge in already breathtaking levels of wealth. So what are we doing? We're cutting aid to the former while showering government largess on the latter.

There's a reason those campaign millions keep coming and coming and coming.

A Times article last week noted that the wealthiest 400 taxpayers accounted for more than 1 percent of all the income in the United States in 2000, "more than double their share just eight years earlier."

The influence of the wealthy has always been great, but it hasn't always been so cruel. Especially in the past six or seven decades there were many powerful political and civic leaders who looked out for the interests of the less fortunate and pressed their claims for treatment that was reasonably fair.

That's changed. The Bush juggernaut, at least for the time being, is rolling over everything that dares to get in its way. And fairness is not something it is concerned about.  

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Gentry Lange 
  To: seattle-editorial at lists.indymedia.org 
  Cc: g at art13.com 
  Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2003 12:16 PM
  Subject: [Seattle-editorial] FEATURE PROPOSAL: Unemployment 

  Subtitle: The Untold Story in the Northwest

  <p><b>Unempolyment the Untold Story in the Northwest</b></p>
  <p> <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/economy/july-dec03/jobless_7-3.html" target="_blank">The
    National Media</a> is reporting a 6.4% unemployment rate for June. But if you
    <a href="http://www.bls.gov/lau/maps/twmcort.gif">look at the map</a>, the Northwest
    is running between 6 and 10%. That's almost 4% higher than the national average
    in some counties in the Northwest. While most <a href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/129515_economy04.html" target="_blank">local
    media</a> corporations rightly pointed out that Washington is suffering the
    2nd worst unemployment in the nation (behind Oregon), most failed to paint the
    picture as grim as it really is. Combined with a certain number of people who
    have given up looking for work, are permenantly unemployed, or those who are
    underemployed (Read <a href="http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82%7E10834%7E1471088,00.html" target="_blank">The
    Job Rate Shuffle</a>, Oakland Tribune), there are far more people suffering
    lack of full employment than the numbers the corporate media is telling you.
  </p>

  __________________________________________________________________

  Without the HTML
  Unempolyment the Untold Story in the Northwest

  The National Media is reporting a 6.4% unemployment rate for June. But if you look at the map, the Northwest is running between 6 and 10%. That's almost 4% higher than the national average in some counties in the Northwest. While most local media corporations rightly pointed out that Washington is suffering the 2nd worst unemployment in the nation (behind Oregon), most failed to paint the picture as grim as it really is. Combined with a certain number of people who have given up looking for work, are permenantly unemployed, or those who are underemployed (Read The Job Rate Shuffle, Oakland Tribune), there are far more people suffering lack of full employment than the numbers the corporate media is telling you.

  __________________________________________________________________

  Hey Editorialists:

  I've searched and searched for stuff on unemployment within Indymedia, and alternative media sources, but can't find much worthy of a feature. Regardless, I put this together as a way to showcase a story that isn't getting out, and because the Bureau of Labor Stats county map is so illuminating. 

  Anyway, if there are more links to attach with good alternative media and indy stories, I'd love that.

  Gentry

  Gentry

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